WEXFORD’S Lucy Latta finished best of the Irish riders at Badminton last weekend, when she and RCA Patron Saint completed in 17th place. Latta had started her week with a personal best performance in the dressage for a score of 31.9 and provisional 18th place, before she moved up to fifth after the cross-country phase, despite being “frustrated” with herself for incurring two time penalties. Three fences down on Sunday pushed the pair back down the leader board, but Latta was philosophical: “I’ll always be a bit disappointed with three down,” she said, “but it is his weakest phase. He still gave me a great spin yesterday, and I’m happy with him overall this week.”

Finishing directly behind Latta in 18th was the multi-medalled Padraig McCarthy and Lady Ophelia, who put in an impressive cross-country round on Saturday to finish only two seconds over the optimum time. McCarthy acknowledged that the mare doesn’t find the dressage phase easy, but said that she was “amazing the whole way” over Eric Winter’s course, and their performance helped the climb into the top 20 from 47th after dressage.

Sam Watson mirrored McCarthy’s performances almost exactly in the jumping phases, the only difference being that he finished under the time allowed in the show jumping, and he similarly moved from 53rd after dressage to eventual 20th with Ballyneety Rocketman. Watson was frustrated with his show jumping performance, saying that he “chased the clock” round the back of the course, which prompted the two fences down, but had some satisfaction later that day when he was presented with the Silver Jubilee Plate for the most successful rider with a horse owned by the rider or immediate family.

Austin O’Connor seemed pleased overall with Sixmilewater, who added a Badminton completion to that which the partnership achieved at Burghley last September, to finish in 33rd. Georgie Goss chose to withdraw Feloupe despite a solid dressage score of 30.8, citing harder than expected ground conditions, while Sarah Ennis and Grantstown Jackson put in their trademark quick cross-country round, but sadly didn’t progress beyond the final horse inspection.